Cari and Arts, Beats and Eats
In category General on 06 Sep 2006 @ 05:24 am
Cari is still coming, we just don't know when yet. She had some business to take care of. I hope she likes all the things I got her. I'm excited she's still coming. When she first said she wasn't going to be able to come i was heartbroken. But we talked today and she is still coming.
Over the weekend I participated in Congregation Shema Yisrael's outreach at the arts festival in Pontiac. It was such an amazing experience. I'm sore, my hips ache and my face and lips are sunburned and all of the muscles in my body ache but it was WORTH IT!! God was truly with me. I am normally a very sensitive nervous person with sz who has psychotic issues with large crowds... This weekend i was NONE of that. I was actually bold, my hands weren't shaking, and i wasn't nervous or had any sz. problems. even when i was being abused, shouted at, spit on, and called almost every name in the book. One guy tried to knock me down. And the festival people themselves were harrassing us. One girl came up to me the first day and said i had to stop handing out the tracts. she said the people handing out stuff paid for the right to be there. I told her exactly what Rabbi Glenn had prepared us to say if we were confronted like that. I told her I don't have permission to stop and she will need to call my rabbi. she persisted with telling me to stop and i just repeated 'you have to call my rabbi' all the while holding out his number. Finally she could see i wasn't going to budge and as she dialed the number i said 'and there is this funny thing called the 1st amendment'... well Rabbi Glenn came within 2 minutes and said "Roen, just continue on with what you were doing" and took her to a quiet spot on the corner. he talked with her about 10 minutes, then she left and he came up to me grinning and said i should not have anymore problems... turns out he told her that just because they blocked off a few public streets, they could NOT say the 1st amendment does not apply within those barriers. that we have every right to be there and to be handing out tracts and talking to people and that if she wanted to take it to court then fine but that she WILL lose. The 1st amendment gives us freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion and expression. The second day was more of the same, insults, shouts, derogatory comments, etc... However, we managed to pass out all the tracts.. with the police watching because we were told that if we impeded traffic in any way we COULD be legally thrown out... so we walked around the intersections continually moving with the flow of the crowds... Over all, despite the negative reactions, we had some very good conversations and passed out thousands and thousands of tracts. i would say it was a huge success. and you know what? it's helped me to not be so afraid all the time. God is with me and I conquered some of my greatest fears with His help.
Over the weekend I participated in Congregation Shema Yisrael's outreach at the arts festival in Pontiac. It was such an amazing experience. I'm sore, my hips ache and my face and lips are sunburned and all of the muscles in my body ache but it was WORTH IT!! God was truly with me. I am normally a very sensitive nervous person with sz who has psychotic issues with large crowds... This weekend i was NONE of that. I was actually bold, my hands weren't shaking, and i wasn't nervous or had any sz. problems. even when i was being abused, shouted at, spit on, and called almost every name in the book. One guy tried to knock me down. And the festival people themselves were harrassing us. One girl came up to me the first day and said i had to stop handing out the tracts. she said the people handing out stuff paid for the right to be there. I told her exactly what Rabbi Glenn had prepared us to say if we were confronted like that. I told her I don't have permission to stop and she will need to call my rabbi. she persisted with telling me to stop and i just repeated 'you have to call my rabbi' all the while holding out his number. Finally she could see i wasn't going to budge and as she dialed the number i said 'and there is this funny thing called the 1st amendment'... well Rabbi Glenn came within 2 minutes and said "Roen, just continue on with what you were doing" and took her to a quiet spot on the corner. he talked with her about 10 minutes, then she left and he came up to me grinning and said i should not have anymore problems... turns out he told her that just because they blocked off a few public streets, they could NOT say the 1st amendment does not apply within those barriers. that we have every right to be there and to be handing out tracts and talking to people and that if she wanted to take it to court then fine but that she WILL lose. The 1st amendment gives us freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion and expression. The second day was more of the same, insults, shouts, derogatory comments, etc... However, we managed to pass out all the tracts.. with the police watching because we were told that if we impeded traffic in any way we COULD be legally thrown out... so we walked around the intersections continually moving with the flow of the crowds... Over all, despite the negative reactions, we had some very good conversations and passed out thousands and thousands of tracts. i would say it was a huge success. and you know what? it's helped me to not be so afraid all the time. God is with me and I conquered some of my greatest fears with His help.
